The Boone and Crockett Club. 



the members interchange of opinion and ideas on 

 hunting, travel and exploration; on the various 

 kinds of hunting rifles; on the haunts of game 

 animals, etc. 



Such were the purposes of the Club when it was 

 formed, and for a number of years each received 

 its fair share of attention. Gradually, however, 

 the settlement of the country and the sweep of 

 population to the westward made it more and more 

 difficult to carry out the two first-named, while 

 the same causes magnified the importance of the 

 third and fourth of these objects. Great changes 

 have taken place in portions of the United States, 

 where at the date of the formation of the Club 

 wild game was found in abundance, and over much 

 of the western country the advancing tide of 

 settlement has swept out of existence all the game. 

 The Boone and Crockett Club, organized as an 

 association of hunting riflemen, to promote manly 

 sport with the rifle, and to investigate the wild and 

 unknown portions of the country, can no longer 

 do either of these things within the limits of the 

 United States. Little hunting trips may be made, 

 and occasionally a head or two of game killed, but 

 the old wild frontier of the limitless prairie and 

 of the steep and rugged unknown mountains is 

 gone forever. 



437 



